Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
EX-ROANOKE MAYOR URGES PERSISTENCE
When Noel Taylor arrived in Roanoke - the city he would later serve as mayor - "I was in the back of the bus."In 1961, he recalled, the banquet welcoming him as the new minister of High Street Baptist Church couldn't be held at segregated Hotel Roanoke.
On his way to address Roanoke City Council for the first time, Taylor walked along the Municipal Building's hall, past restrooms labeled "Colored."
That day, Taylor asked council to repeal a city ordinance that restricted blacks to the back of city buses.
A decade later, council's gavel was in his hand.
"I've been told, `You can't eat here,'" Taylor told Virginia Tech's Black Caucus on Friday. "Now I'm a member of the country club.
"I decided when I became the mayor, I wanted to give my best. I knew I was somewhat suspect in some minds because of my identity. But that was my goal, to the last day."
Faith - in his religion and in his nation - and commitment to "what's right" carried him "up that invisible stairwell," he said.
Taylor remembered growing up in Bedford County, attending school barefoot and walking while white students rode to segregated schools on buses.
"The color of my skin prevented me from getting the education I wanted in my hometown. But I refused to quit. I knew the Lord would carry me through," Taylor said.
"There's nothing more I'd like to tell you today than our work is done, but there are still doors to be opened."
Blacks and other minorities are often used as visible tokens or "window dressings" by organizations not committed to equality, he said.
"We have to excel and have better qualifications because our skin is dark."
Speaking emotionally and fervently, Taylor said, "I just believe we are able. . . . We must not quit because we are too close to victory. All have the ability to rise. All I ask of you is simply to do this: to give your best."
Taylor said he did not speak as a man "wearing his blackness on his sleeve. I was part of a minority," who succeeded "because in the city of Roanoke there were other people who didn't look like me who were willing to trust me and give me a chance."
Taylor also said the prostatic cancer that prompted him not to seek re-election as mayor last year remains in remission.
"I feel fine," he said. "In some ways that has blessed me. I've been preaching healing by faith all along. It's given me a new quality to my spiritual life."